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Domain ontology

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• antagonistic constraints: Set of constraints that are strongly interfering.

• constraint--weight: The importance of satisfying a certain constraint.

• constraint: Restrictions on values of design components, either stated by the user or caused by the selection of other design components.

• design extension: An addition to a design specification, in order to fulfils more requirements or to overcome constraints.

• design parameter: A facet of the structure of the design.

• design: A specification of a design structure in terms of parameter values.

• evaluation: A test that shows if --or to what extend-- a design satisfies the requirements.

• fixed constraint: A constraint that may not be violated.

• partial design: An incomplete specification of a structure.

• precondition: A condition in terms of a parameter value that should hold in order to make a procedure applicable.

• procedure: A method to compute a design parameter.

• proposition: A design that has not yet been evaluated.

• remedy: A modification to a design parameter in order to take new constraints into account (also called a fix or revision).

• requirement: A functional constraint to the design.

• space: possible solutions to satisfying constraints and requirements.

• thrashing: Search in different parts of the space keeps failing for the same reasons [Gasching, 1979], caused by node-inconsistency or the lack of arc consistency [Kumar, 1992].